Coupon holder

ABSTRACT

A shopping aid is disclosed comprising a plurality of one piece molded plastic scrip clips supported in a protective cover or bookbinding-like enclosure. Each clip comprises generally planar elongated outer and inner portions with common edges in the direction of elongation and joined along a part of those common edges by a pair of torsion ribs. The inner portion is deformed out of the general plane of the clip in two regions, one to either side of the ribs with one deformation forming a depressable tab, the depression of which toward the outer portion will cause the inner portion to pivot about the ribs relative to the outer portion allowing the placing of scrip between the other deformed portion and the outer portion.

United States Patent 1191 Morhack [451 Oct. 14, 1975 COUPON HOLDER George C. Morhack, 4062 Hessen Cassel Road, Fort Wayne, 1nd. 46806 22 Filed: Jan. 24, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 436,050

[76] Inventor:

[52] U.S. Cl. 40/102; 40/104.18; 24/259 [51] Int. Cl. G09F 11/06 [58] Field of Search 24/81 MC, 73 MP, 259 PF;

Primary Examiner-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner.lohn H. Wolff Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Albert L. Jeffers; Roger M. Rickert 57 ABSTRACT A shopping aid is disclosed comprising a plurality of one piece molded plastic scrip clips supported in a protective cover or bookbinding-like enclosure. Each clip comprises generally planar elongated outer and inner portions withcommon edges in the direction of elongation and joined along a part of those common edges by a pair of torsion ribs. The inner portion is deformed out of the general plane of the clip in two regions, one to either side of the ribs with one deformation forming a depressable tab, the depression of which toward the outer portion will cause the inner portion to pivot about the ribs relative to the outer portion allowing the placing of scrip between the other deformed portion and the outer portion.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures COUPON HOLDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Coupons giving shoppers discounts on specified goods during limited time intervals have become commonplace as have the attendant check-out lane delays while shoppers sort through coupons which are obsolete, applicable to goods not actually purchased, good only in some future time period, or good only at some other store. Similarly, shoppers in their hurry to get through a checkout lane may overlook a relevant coupon, thus losing the benefit thereof. Attempts to solve this storage and handling problem have primarily in volved paper clips and rubber bands.

It is accordingly a salient object of the present invention to provide an easy access coupon storage device.

One object of the present invention is to provide a device for maintaining the order and integrity of a plurality of coupons.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a shopper with a system for holding coupons, shopping lists and other scrip in a readily accessible manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for carrying scrip and the like.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a system which will allow a shopper to categorize and/or place in order a number of coupons prior to embarking on a shopping trip and thereafter allow the shopper to remove and use the coupons as desired with a minimum of delay and confusion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The foregoing well as numerous other objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved by providing a system wherein scrip such as coupons, currency, checks or credit cards are held firmly in a preferred arrangement by a shopping aid which comprises in combination with a multi-ring binder a plurality of scrip clips. Each clip has a generally planar elongated clip body with means near one end thereof for attach ing the clip to the binder so that the clip may be protectively enclosed therein. Each clip further has a clip leaf integral with the body and having first and second portions near opposite ends deformed out of the general plane of the clip and in the same direction relative to the clip with the clip leaf and body joined by a pair of torsion ribs intermediate the deformed portions so that when one of the deformed portions is moved toward the body the second portion moves away to form a scrip accepting region between the second portion and the body.

The subject matter which I regard as my invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. My invention itself, however, together with further objects and advantages thereof may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plurality of scrip clips attached to an open bookbinding-like enclosure or binder;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of one of the scrip clips from FIG. I;

FIG. 3 is a cross section view of the scrip clip of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a view of the scrip clip similar to FIG. 3 but illustrating the attachment of the clip to the protective cover and the relative motion of clip body and leaf during depression of the leaf tab.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is an illustrative embodiment of the shopping aid of the present invention as a ring binder containing a plurality of identical scrip clips. The number of scrip clips, of course, depends on the wishes of the user and might only be one. About six scrip clips seems desirable in many instances. A protective cover such as a bookbindin'g-like enclosure 11 has multiple rings 13 which open and close in a known manner. Each ring passes through an aperture 15 of FIG. 2 to hold the several clips within the binder. A binder tab 17, for example, with a snap 19 may be provided to hold the binder in its closed position when not in use or the hinging structures 23 and 25 could be spring loaded as desired and, of course, these hinging structures could merely be flexible binder portions. In FIG. 1, several coupons at 21 are held in place by being grasped between the clip leaf 27 and the clip body 29 the structure of which is better seen in FIGS. 2 through 4.

The one piece flexible molded plastic coupon clip of FIG. 2 has a pair of apertures, 15 and 15, near the end of the clip body 29 remote from a leaf tab 31. While illustrated as having substantially the same spacing as two rings of the multi-ring binder of FIG. 1, the space between these two apertures could be cut out and the distance therebetween made for example, twice the spacing between rings therefore allowing the interleaving of clips within the binder. Similarly, the apertures could be round or even provided in a position normal to that shown, for example, as two rings or a sleeve for receiving a common shaft within a somewhat different binder. The coupon clip has a tab 33 for positioning the clip and to allow the user to depress the leaf tab 31 by squeezing tabs 31 and 33, for example, between the thumb and forefinger. Leaf tab 31 may also be depressed against a surface of the binder l1. Depression of the leaf tab 31 causes the clip leaf 27 to raise from the position illustrated in FIG. 3 to that illustrated in FIG. 4, in which position a coupon may be slipped between the leaf 27 and the body 29. When the depressing or pinching of the tab 31 ceases, the leaf 27 and body 29 will firmly grip the coupon and the leaf 27 will lie generally parallel to the outer portion or clip body 29. The clip leaf 27 of the inner portion of the coupon clip is generally parallel to the body when these parts are in a scrip gripping position due to the deformation of the leaf which causes this part of the inner portion to be displaced out of the general plane of the clip body. The inner portion of the clip is also deformed at 37 so that the leaf tab 31 is displaced from the plane of the clip body and readily accessible to a user.

The inner and outer portions of the coupon clip are elongated and have common edges in the direction of elongation and are seen to be joined along a part of those common edges. This joining occurs at the torsion ribs 39 and 41 which lie intermediate the leaf tab 31 and clip leaf 27. These torsion ribs 39 and 41, of course, support the inner portion of the clip relative to the outer portion and the ribs are torsionally deformed when the tab 31 is depressed and will retain a part of that torsional deformation when scrip is gripped by the clip since the normal rest position for the coupon clip is, as illustrated in FIG. 3, with the scrip gripping clip leaf deformed out of the general plane of the clip but not so as to lie parallel thereto. I

Thus, while the present invention has been described with respect to a preferred embodiment, numerous modifications will suggest themselves to those of ordi nary skill in the art. For example, the several clips illustrated in FIG. 1 could be molded as a single multi-clip entity or many other types of protective cover and could be substituted for the binder 11 with corresponding changes in the means of attaching the clip or clips and binder together. The tabs such as 33 or clip leaf 27 could be provided with roughened writing surfaces or printed coupon identifiers. These and numerous other modifications will readily suggest themselves to those of ordinary skill in the art and accordingly the scope of the present invention is to be measured only by that of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A one-piece flexible molded plastic scrip clip having generally planar elongated outer and inner portions with the outer portion comprising a generally rectangular clip body having means near one end thereof for attaching the scrip clip to a protective cover, and the inner portion comprising a generally rectangular clip leaf free on three sides thereof and a leaf tab, the leaf tab being integral with the clip leaf along at least a portion of the fourth side of the clip leaf with the leaf tab having a free end extending away from the clip leaf, the inner and outer portions having a pair of common portions near opposite ends of the clip leaf fourth side and forming a pair of flexible torsion ribs to support the inner portion relative to the outer portion, the clip leaf being deformed out of the general plane of the scrip clip in a first region with the free end of the clip leaf extending through the general plane of the clip body and the leaf tab being deformed out of the general plane of the scrip clip in a second region with both deformed regions extending in the same direction from the general plane of the scrip clip, depression of the leaf tab second region toward the general plane of the scrip clip causing the clip leaf to pivot about means including the torsion ribs and through the plane of the clip body torsionally flexing the ribs and allowing the placement of scrip between the clip leaf and the clip body after which the leaf tab may be released and the scrip flexibly secured between the clip leaf and the clip body.

2. The scrip clip of claim 1 wherein the protective cover comprises a multi-ring binder and the means for attaching comprises the end of the outer portion remote from the leaf tab, there being at least two apertures near the remote outer portion end spaced apart substantially the same distance as the distance between two rings of the binder.

3. The scrip clip of claim 2 wherein the distance is that between two adjacent rings. 

1. A one-piece flexible molded plastic scrip clip having generally planar elongated outer and inner portions with the outer portion comprising a generally rectangular clip body having means near one end thereof for attaching the scrip clip to a protective cover, and the inner portion comprising a generally rectangular clip leaf free on three sides thereof and a leaf tab, the leaf tab being integral with the clip leaf along at least a portion of the fourth side of the clip leaf with the leaf tab having a free end extending away from the clip leaf, the inner and outer portions having a pair of common portions near opposite ends of the clip leaf fourth side and forming a pair of flexible torsion ribs to support the inner portion relative to the outer portion, the clip leaf being deformed out of the general plane of the scrip clip in a first region with the free end of the clip leaf extending through the general plane of the clip body and the leaf tab being deformed out of the general plane of the scrip clip in a second region with both deformed regions extending in the same direction from the general plane of the scrip clip, depression of the leaf tab second region toward the general plane of the scrip clip causing the clip leaf to pivot about means including the torsion ribs and through the plane of the clip body torsionally flexing the ribs and allowing the placement of scrip between the clip leaf and the clip body after which the leaf tab may be released and the scrip flexibly secured between the clip leaf and the clip body.
 2. The scrip clip of claim 1 wherein the protective cover comprises a multi-ring binder and the means for attaching comprises the end of the outer portion remote from the leaf tab, there being at least two apertures near the remote outer portion end spaced apart substantially the same distance as the distance between two rings of the binder.
 3. The scrip clip of claim 2 wherein the distance is that between two adjacent rings. 